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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Our morning session was Forest Foods and Pharmacy led by Darryl Patton. This was an awesome session and I would definitely do this again! I have lots of notes that he talked about but I do not recommend this to anyone or encourage anyone to try these. I may do some more research on this before I even try some of this but I found the information interesting.

1. To make tinctures use 80 proof vodka.

2. Broadleaf Plantain (ribwort) – mild tasting like spinach,eat in a salad or cook like spinach. Can be used on brown recluse spider bites; abcess teeth, crushed leaves on bee stings; cilium seeds like Metamucil; blend, strain, and drink juice

3. Wild Lettuce – makes you sleepy, kind of a non narcotic opium; soak in alcohol, squeeze out and add more, then boild and dry out, take as a sedative or pain reliever; young leaves in salad; latex takes off warts, moles, skin cancer (like milk from fig tree)

4. Sassafras – calming, relaxing; helps hunger pains, used in tea as blood purifier, jaundice, hepatitis, helps live, antiviral, can make you sweat; used to make hair shiny and grow, keeps mice out.

5. Bay leaf- gets rid of roaches

6. Poison Ivy – dry 3 small leaves and eat once a day for 2 weeks to build up an immunity

7. Joe Pye Weed – like boneset; roots are antiviral, can make you sweat; tea

10. Greenbriar – raw or steamed with butter and salt; root is good too; steroid precursor, builds muscle in men, hormonal for women; anti-inflammatory, good for arthritis, good for IBS; suck on berries for hoarse throat; use like stuffed grape leaves

Searching for Salamanders took up the afternoon. This was fun for all ages. I found out there were woodland salamanders and salamanders in the water. We found spotted dusky salamanders, Blue ridge two lined, Oconoluftee, Redbacks, American toad, ring neck snake, blue bellies (seels), Santeetlah.